A superb novel, one of my favourite book I have ever read. Jean Plaidy is able to convert history into an interesting book which people can get absorbed in without a problem. Its an easy book to read with treachery, murder and romance. It has a wide range of vocabulary and I have learnt many new words from reading this book. I recommmend this book for anyone over 14 years old.

This book is very inspiring and keeps you in the edge of your seat. Jean Plaidy writes about the life of Catherine di Medici, who was a recentful woman since she was young. It describes her life and her feelings of revenge against so many people and especially against her own family. A great book of romance but also a thriller.

This colorful guide to memorials/monuments of the World War I Battlefields of Ypres has 256 pages. There are suggested itineraries, maps, photos, eyewitness accounts, and info on how the monuments were built. A brief history of the battles is included, but this should not be interpreted as a complete history of the battles. Also listed are the various cemetery agencies.

Most attention is given to the forces of the United Kingdom, but there are items invloving all nations present in the Ypres battles.

Several side-trips with diving times are also added as a bonus to this helpful guide for travelers.

Erik Peper, Professor and Director of the Institute for Holistic Studies at San Francisco State University is an international authority on biofeedback and self regulation. He recently co-authored with Katherine Gibney and Catherine Holt, "Make Health Happen, a book essential for health care professionals and their clients in learning how to optimize self healing and wellness.
"Make Health Happen" provides necessary, theoretically grounded information for developing a holistic program. Chapters in each of the 4 sections progress logically and sequentially towards the learning of essential foundational theory and relaxation, imagery, and cognitive skills. Each chapter introduces and builds upon holistic concepts and strategies that are then reinforced with practice exercise sessions. Daily log keeping and group discussion formats are provided to further facilitate self awareness and experiential mastery of content. The ultimate goal is to develop ones own unique, meaningful, healing program towards wholeness. Nursing students have used this book's first edition (Creating Wholeness) as a main textbook for a university holistic nursing course; several students reported: "I now have a variety of ways to relieve stress." "This awareness has allowed me to intervene earlier and to stop some of the general overload." (Stetson, 1998)
Nursing students (in one holistic nursing course) quickly and successfully learned and applied the holistic, healing principles and methods into their own lives as well as with clients in various health care settings. For example, students helped reduce clients' pain, stress, and anxiety by remaining calm, creating relaxing atmospheres, and teaching stress reduction techniques from the textbook's relaxation scripts and/or use of relaxation audio tapes. Stress reduction techniques were especially helpful in reducing anxiety for clients on ventilators (Stetson, 1998).
Learning self awareness and inner skills were reported by students as rewarding and fun to do, particularly when learning more advanced self regulation skills such as hand warming. On the average, students learned to warm their hands 5.70 degrees Fahrenheit in about 5 minutes.
Nursing students rated the Creating Wholeness book highly. Students reported being able to reduce their self reported stress with these techniques, from an average of 4.29 to 1.95 rating, on a scale of 1 (no discomfort) to 5 (maximum discomfort).
"Make Health Happen" can be used by health care professionals in many ways. The book chapters can be assigned selectively according to what the professional deems important to learn, and can be taught on an individual or group basis. This book is definitely a "how to" manual and easy for professional use.
The first half of the book teaches fundamental relaxation skills that incorporate relaxation theory and principles. The reader is introduced to relatively easy relaxation exercises which progress to more advanced skills. Practice sessions include relaxation scripts and exercises; also, audio tapes (duplicating the text's relaxation scripts) can be purchased for additional learning. The last chapter of the relaxation section requires the reader to write a personal relaxation script. Nursing students reported particular enjoyment using this exercise since it individualized their relaxation and stimulated them to creatively recall and write beautiful, healing images of special places promoting their own inner peace and relaxation. Personalizing relaxation also helped to integrate and master previously learned inner skills. For example, student comments in their summative papers half way through the course were: "I have become more focused and aware of myself and the environment." "I've channeled my worries from frustration into relaxation." (Stetson, 1998)
The second half of the book focuses on the development of cognitive balance and use of imagery. Many students reported the cognitive exercises to be useful in helping them recognize and change their own negative thought patterns and less assertive ways. Learning of imagery continued to deepen the journey of self enlightenment. Positive changes in these areas reportedly helped increase student self esteem and confidence.
"Make Health Happen" is an essential, consciousness raising book for all health care professionals, students, and clients, particularly relevant in caring for self and clients in our rapidly changing health care system today.

I love the variety of puzzles in this book. They range in difficulty - my 10-year-old son, myself, and my physics-adoring husband have all been challenged and entertained by the puzzles in this book.

I love that the author says at the beginning of the introduction, "If you really get stuck, don't give up - or you'll spoil the fun. Put the sticky puzzle aside, and perhaps the next day a new line of attack may suddenly strike you. Or you can try to solve an easier puzzle similar to the sticky one. Or again you can guess trial answers just to see if they make sense."

He does give the answers at the back, but he's right; it's much more satisfying to figure it out oneself.

The puzzles are grouped by type; the easier ones at the beginning of the section, gradiently getting more difficult.

This book is really wonderful for children and adults. As a homeschooler, I find this a wonderful tool for challenging myself and my kids. It's a great tool for making math FUN!

Michael's Journal is the story of Michael Cooke Holt, a wealthy and emotionally delicate young New Yorker at the dawn of the Great War. In some respects a coming of age tale, this remarkable novel charts Michael's departure from the cocoon of his mother's home and his exploration of the "real world" of New York City in the heady years between the outbreak of World War I and 1925. By the end of the war, he has set his sights west, following a young black preacher by the name of Elijah Broom, whom he had known in New York as a tragic street child named Washington. Elijah's tent revivals and crusades take the two men from Memphis west to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and on toward California.

Michael's journey of self-discovery is both exhilarating and painful. He says of his decision to leave home, "I have awakened from drunkenness to life, from shame to decision, from sickness to action, to make something of myself." He loves his new freedom, but he is soon faced with crushing despair as he explores the city. Eventually, he meets a young black boy on the street who touches him deeply with his simple dignity in the face of horrible poverty and injustice. They see each other over the course of only a few days before Washington disappears. But Michael remains haunted by him, and when, three years later, he sees a picture in the newspaper of Elijah Broom preaching in Memphis, he knows he must find him. When he sees "Washington" again, he declares, "He is the force of what is love." Michael may be speaking of a religious conversion experience, an awakening sense of his own sexuality, or both; he does not yet realize which.

Michael's life takes place at a central turning point in modern history, a fact that he seems to perceive even though he is in the midst of it all. Indeed, his observations of the world and society around him are a compelling historical document in their own right. Through his eyes, we learn about the gamut of political, social, and cultural issues and personalities of the day, all with first-hand immediacy.

The best fiction allows us to see the world through the eyes of another and presents us with a vision of reality that we might not have considered if left to our own devices. In Michael, we have a guide of exceptional eloquence and intelligence and unusual temperament. Indeed, his emotional instability (perhaps schizophrenia) colors his reactions to the world around him. But ironically, that fact seems to lend his perceptions added reality and power for us. We are truly inside the mind of another, and it is a fascinating journey. For example, Michael perceives painfully all the contradictions of life around him: war is wrong, yet peace seems an impossible compromise; war as a religious calling; racism and Christian charity; widespread poverty amid tremendous wealth; reality vs. madness.

Author L. M. Young has composed this novel in diary form, a technique that is perfectly suited to the story she wishes to tell. In the introduction, Esterhazy Jones recounts his discovery of Michael's journals in the dusty back rooms of an archive, and his commentary sets the stage for what is to come - a "study of the American character." Jones says that at first he "despaired that [Michael] was just a figment of another time." Indeed, the strength of the novel is the very fact that Michael IS a figment of the past whom we come to know through a shared experience of discovery. He is a compelling, haunting, and ultimately likable character who rings true.

Michael's Journal is a finely crafted and utterly readable novel that I recommend highly to anyone with an interest in American history, the human psyche, or the practice of journaling

This book is very well done. It has a charming tale of a kitten named Mike. On Christmas Eve Mike curiosly walks into Santa's bag. And ends up at the North Pole. I highly recomend this book.

John Holt does a terrific job describing classic rivers and streams in the beautiful Montana "Big Sky" country. The book is concise, easy reading with lots of accrurate information that the fly fisherman needs to be successful.

I used this book and its sister book for west of the continental divide extensively on my last trip to Montana. It now has a large coffee stain on it but I don't care. The information is exact and extensive. I own a couple of other books by Holt and would recommend any of them. Do not go to Montana on a fishing expidition without a couple of John Holt books in your possesion.

Pet owners in the English Seaside village of Taviscombe are in an uproar because the new head veterinarian in the only practice in the area is an arrogant, unfeeling know it all who isn't kind to his patients or their owners. Besides alienating his clients, Malcolm Hardy also causes dissension in the office as well. He fired one vet who has been with the practice for years and is making unreasonable demands on the other partner.

During an operation, the animal dies. Malcolm blames the junior partner but in reality it is his fault. He fires an assistant and replaces her with his girlfriend. When he is found dead in his office, it almost comes as a relief for all concerned. The police rule it a murder but there are so many suspects and few leads that Mrs. Sheila Mallory, a widow who has solved homicides in the past, decides to investigate.

MRS. MALLORY AND DEATH IN PRACTICE is the quintessential British cozy that is rich in characterizations and short on blood and gore. Readers get a fascinating glimpse into life in a small English village where the same families have lived there for generations so that everyone knows their neighbor. Hazel Holt gives the reader an interesting who done it to solve, one that has many viable suspects, all with credible motives.

Harriet Klausner